(Newser)
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The official count of Mexico's presidential election has confirmed the victory of Enrique Pena Nieto, the candidate seeking to return the former autocratic ruling party to power after a 12-year hiatus. The Federal Electoral Institute reported late yesterday that with nearly 100% of the ballot boxes counted—and about half of them double-checked due to the possibility of fraud—Pena Nieto had around 38% of the vote and leftist rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was second with around 31%.

The count by the country's electoral authority will almost certainly become the target of legal challenges by Obrador, who alleges Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, engaged in vote-buying that illegally tilted millions of votes. The final vote count must be certified in September by the Federal Electoral Tribunal, which has declined to overturn previously contested elections, including a 2006 presidential vote that was far closer than Sunday's.